From Squatters in a Classroom to Successful Indie Game Developers

Five years ago, eight Danish game developers were squatting in an empty classroom at the University of Aalborg. Now, they have a successful game with over 500,000 sales and an exciting sequel in the works for early 2016.

Steffen Kabbelgaard is the CEO of BetaDwarf, the Copenhagen-based indie game company behind 2013’s hit FORCED. On the day that BetaDwarf released the game on Steam, Kabbelgaard posted a series of images detailing his team’s unique story—which began by squatting rent-free in an abandoned classroom:

Reddit user BaboonLord

Kabbelgaard notes in his post, “We used the teachers’ kitchen at night, and we lived unnoticed for seven months.” At the end of this period, however, he and his team were caught by a wayward lecturer who ventured into the room by accident. When authorities got involved, the team vacated.

They relocated to an inexpensive house “in the middle of nowhere,” which would be the team’s home and office during their early work on FORCED, a co-op RPG where players are gladiators fighting for their freedom in arena brawls with puzzles, trials, and a spirit mentor named Balfus.

BetaDwarf released the first incarnation of FORCED to positive reviews on October 24, 2013—but they only debuted a console adaptation for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 last month.

The team, now 18 members strong, has its sights set on a follow-up in early 2016: a rogue-like successor called FORCED: Eternal Arenas, that adds Magic: The Gathering-inspired deck-building and randomly generated arena settings to the previous game.

The team may not be squatting in a classroom anymore, but despite the positive reviews for their first game, funding is still tight.

In a recent Ask Me Anything (AMA) discussion, Kabbelgaard announced that BetaDwarf needed $75,000 at minimum to complete the game over the next two months.

So, naturally, the Danish devs launched a Kickstarter:

In the campaign video, a mouse hovers over three options representing the developers’ funding options—each of which carries a unique cost.

Releasing the game in its current state would give fans a bad gameplay experience, while trying Kickstarter merely requires BetaDwarf’s “Blood, Sweat, & Tears.”

But if the indie gamers had chosen option no. 3—forfeiting control to a publisher—the screen reads, “Cost: 1 Soul.”

As of the time of this writing, Kabbelgaard and the BetaDwarf team have just over $70,000 of their $75,000 goal—with about seven hours remaining.

If they’re successful, the developers get two more months to finish their game, which they hope will generate enough sales to allow them to continue with another sequel.

And if they’re not? Kabbelgaard fears the resulting game—and his team—will suffer: